Phish fans will fondly remember the band’s two trips across the pond to Europe over the course of 1997–once in the winter during February and March, and again in the summer, across June and July. Much like the Grateful Dead’s Europe ’72 tour, Phish’s overseas excursions totaled over 30 shows, and resulted in some of their strongest jams of the 1.0 era, and also saw the quartet experiment with a number of new songs that have remained in setlist rotation to this day.
The first of these European shows started on this day 26 years ago, when Phish took the stage at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London, England on February 13th, 1996.
The first show of their European winter tour treated attendees to a number of live debuts of both originals and covers. The instrument-swapping tunes, “Walfredo” and “Rock A William”, made their first appearances, as did three covers in “Love Me” by Elvis Presley, “When The Circus Comes” by Los Lobos, and “My Soul” by Clifton Chenier. Of those five, the last two are still played quite often, and “Walfredo” was busted out as recently as 2014 in San Francisco, CA.
Relive the band’s full 1997 tour opener via the audio player below.
Phish – Shepherd’s Bush Empire – 2/13/1997 [Full-Show Audio]
[Audio: Don Wright via fromtheaquarium]
[Originally published February 13, 2016]
The post Phish Opens European Winter Tour With Five Debuts, On This Day In 1997 [Listen] appeared first on L4LM.
